Please Note: This game is designed to run in both windowed and full screen mode. However, not all windows based computer hardware / software combinations can run full screen mode correctly, but all windows based computer hardware / software combinations can run windowed mode and windowed mode is the recommended way of running the game. If you can run the game in full screen mode with your computer hardware / software combinations, congratulations. If you cannot run the game in full screen mode but can run it in windowed mode then The Camo Workshop and Shrapnel Games considers the game to be running and functional.

The first sign of their appearance are the billowing dust clouds, and then over the horizon the low, ugly shapes are visible. Gears whine as turrets traverse, zeroing in on the lead elements. Seconds seem to turn into minutes as the final adjustments are made, as the platoon whispers a prayer and everyone waits. Then, it happens. The first vehicle crosses the designated point of action and the countryside erupts in flashes of flame and smoke. High velocity shells scream across fields and slam into their targets, turning what were once vehicles into burning hulks of metal and flesh. As quickly as it began it is over, and the hunters quickly move to alternate locations, leaving death and destruction behind.

This is the modern battlefield. This is winSPMBT.

winSPMBT is the Windows version of Steel Panthers Main Battle Tank (SPMBT). SPMBT is a classic super-mod for the fan favorite 1996 SSI game, Steel Panthers 2: Modern Battles. Developed by Camo Workshop, and available to the public for no cost, SPMBT followed in the treadmarks of their original super-mod for SP2, Steel Panthers World War II, first released in 1998. More than just a mod, SPMBT is a standalone game that totally reworks the original game. While the gameplay will be familiar to anyone who has spent time with Steel Panthers, the data and gameplay has been tweaked to provide gamers with the ultimate tactical experience.

Originally a DOS program SPMBT has now been upgraded into a full Microsoft Windows application. No longer will players be stuck running the game at 640x480, dealing with sound compatibility issues, or any of the other headaches involved with running DOS games in the 21st century.

winSPMBT includes everything that everyone loved with SPMBT, and turns it up to eleven. There are three brand new scenarios and one new campaign, bringing the grand total to over one hundred plus scenarios in the game! New terrains have been added, and terrain tile sets redone. Scores of OOB files have been updated, there are new and revised vehicle icons, and the AI can now target smoke signatures with artillery. The much requested barbed wire makes an appearance, and now vehicles can reverse out of troubled areas without having to expose their rear.

winSPMBT is available as a basic, free download or in a CD Edition that must be ordered. Both provide players with the exact same, free game but the CD Edition includes helpful items like a printed quick start guide and nice goodies like higher possible resolutions, and a cut-n-paste map editor.

If you have not yet experienced why Steel Panthers, a game released an eternity ago in terms of computer gaming, is still considered one of the (if not THE) best tactical turn-based computer wargames ever, download the addiction right away and see how Camo Workshop has kept the game fresh and viable all these years!

FEATURES:

winSPMBT Free Download Edition features:

♦ Fully Windows compatible up to Windows 8, allowing for either DirectX or GDI based graphics.

♦ Full screen or windowed mode.

♦ Supports resolutions of 640x480 and 800x600.

♦ 97 terrain files representing 62 terrain types.

♦ As of the Version 7 release (2013) the game includes 279 scenarios and 13 campaigns with 320 custom maps and 6,085 photos.

♦ Ninety-two (92) nations are represented in the game. Those OOB's and 15,616 weapon entries.contain a total of 36,014 unit entries, 16,531 formation entries.

♦ There are 6 map zoom levels and a revised game palette. Maps made in winSPWW2 work in winSPMBT.

♦ When defending, the AI will place wire.

♦ Reversible vehicles! Tanks can back up, keeping their front armor towards the source of fire.

♦ Five PBEM save slots.

♦ Everything exhaustively researched.

winSPMBT Enhanced CD Edition features everything as above and:

♦ Printed manual Printed manual and physical CD (Safebox Version).

♦ Higher resolutions! Play at up to 1600x1200, in either full screen or windowed and widescreen support with "Desktop" mode that, when set, automatically adjusts the game to fit your computer's current resolution.

♦ Separate map editor with cut and paste function. Has twelve levels of undo/redo and the cut and paste function allows users to create one large campaign map and then cut areas out and paste to create multiple scenarios within the same area.

♦ Encrypted, secure tournament play. A tournament organizer can create a scenario and send out temporary passwords that allow the players to only play their turn, and will not allow them to load the game into the editor for a sneak peek.

♦ CampaignHack utility: Convert old DOS based campaigns to work with winSPMBT, including renumbering the existing campaigns. The CD edition also allows extraction of a campaigns scenarios into the main scenario menu.

I love the entire SP series. As a retired fighter pilot currently working near-future CAS and other fighter missions, I often try new ideas out in winSPMB. The game has some limitations regarding modern PGMs that could be easily corrected.

I don't find a good way to add Excalibur, GMLRS, or XM395 to the game. None of these GPS-guided indirect fire weapons can be given a realistic accuracy.

There is also a problem with modern AFVs and reactive armor. RA works fine against shaped-charge warheads the size of a Hellfire or tank round, but in the real world it does nothing against larger weapons like AGM-65 or the up-coming GBU-53 SDB-II. But in the game it works almost 100% of the time.